Review: HONOR AMONG THIEVES
/20 Comments/by SuzanneSeries: The Honors #1
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on February 13th 2018
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 480
Source: the Publisher
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via the Publisher. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
Honor Among Thieves, a science fiction novel brought to us by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre, is a thrill ride from start to finish. Set in the not-so-distant future, the story follows teenage protagonist Zara Cole, a petty thief who is using her street smarts to survive on her own in New Detroit. New Detroit isn’t the most pleasant place to live. It’s actually quite seedy, but it offers Zara what she needs at this point in her life, freedom to live on her own terms and make her own decisions. Zara has a family—in fact, she could be living with her mother and sister on a wonderful colony on Mars. Zara’s past, however, has been filled with pain – pain she has experienced at the hands of an abusive father, and then the pain she feels that she has caused her mother and sister. She decides that they would be better off making a fresh start without her causing them further pain, and so this is how she finds herself alone in New Detroit.
Zara is doing just fine for herself, stealing as she needs to and pawning what she steals for cash. That is, until she steals from the wrong person – the daughter of Mr. Deluca, the most powerful man around – and finds herself on the run as Mr. Deluca makes it his mission to take Zara down. Zara faces jail or even death, but in a surprise twist of fate, she finds herself being chosen to become an Honor instead.
The Honors is an elite team of humans who are chosen by the Leviathan. The Leviathan are a race of what I would say are actual living space ships. They can be piloted and lived in like space ships, but they can also think, communicate, and feel emotions. Ever since the Leviathan stepped in and saved Earth from destroying itself, the Leviathan and the humans have had a symbiotic relationship. Every year the Leviathan select 100 humans who will become passengers aboard the living ships and explore the outer reaches of the universe. Usually those chosen to be Honors are scientists, musicians, and other scholarly types. No one from Zara’s community has ever been chosen to be an Honor, so it comes as quite a shock to Zara, who is immediately suspicious as to their motives but agrees to take part because ‘Hey it’s better than jail or death, right?’
What surprises Zara right away is how almost as soon as she meets Nadim, the living ship she will be traveling on, she immediately feels at home for the first time ever. More comfortable than she ever felt in her own home growing up. She actually begins to look forward to spending a year traveling with Nadim; that is, until she realizes there’s more to this journey she is on than meets the eye. Behind the allure of the elite Honors program, things are much darker and more dangerous than Zara had anticipated. Between that and the other dark truths of the universe that she begins to see while on her journey, Zara realizes she might be in as much danger here as she was back on earth.
Can her street smarts help her here or is Zara in completely over her head?
Zara was definitely my favorite part of Honor Among Thieves. I loved her spunk and her street smarts. She is tough as nails and it’s easy to cheer her on, especially as she takes on the underdog role, both against Deluca and then again as a thief among Honors (Side note: I loved that little play on words with the title). As much as I enjoyed the action in the story, it’s actually Zara’s development as a character that really drew me in and kept me reading. She is so closed off and mistrusting of everyone around her when the story opens, but once she gets on that ship and starts to bond both with Nadim and with Beatrice, her fellow Honor, she becomes almost a completely different person. She’s so much more open and trusting and her compassionate side just really comes out when it comes to protecting and defending those she cares about. I liked Zara when the story began, but I absolutely adored her by the end.
Nadim. Okay, I’ll admit the whole idea of a living ship kind of weirded me out at first. The image I have in my head is along the lines of Jonah and the Whale but the Whale is actually a space ship. The whole concept was just so wild. Once I got used to it though, I loved it, especially Zara’s ship, Nadim. Almost as soon as she boards the ship, Zara learns that some of Nadim’s previous missions haven’t gone very well and that if his mission with Zara goes badly, he will be banished to live alone in space. What I really liked about Nadim was that even though he is this massive space ship, he still has this vulnerable, almost childlike quality about him, and like Zara, I found myself feeling very protective of him.
The Action. Between the actual mission itself and then all of the underlying, unexpected drama, this is one action-packed book. In a lot of ways, this aspect of it reminded me of Illuminae with its breakneck pace and with the way it becomes a survival story. The last half of the book goes by especially fast because there’s so much drama and suspense. If you like action, aliens, space battles, and conspiracies, you’d be in for a treat with this book.
The only aspect of Honor Among Thieves that I had trouble with is what was referred to as ‘Deep Bonding’ between a Leviathan and a human. Zara and Nadim engage in this ‘deep bond’ at one point and I don’t know if it was supposed to come across this way, or if I just read more into it than I should have, but it had an almost sexual vibe to me. I was all for the idea of Zara and Nadim in a non-sexual, soulmate kind of way, but that one section just made for an awkward read for me.
Honor Among Thieves is the start of what is sure to be wonderful new series. I hadn’t read anything by either Rachel Caine or Ann Aguirre prior to reading this story, but they are both on my watch list now. If you’re into spunky, street smart heroines, space exploration, and are intrigued by the idea of living space ships, be sure to check out Honor Among Thieves. You won’t be disappointed!
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.
Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.
Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.
About Ann Aguirre
Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes all kinds of books, emo music, action movies and Doctor Who. She writes all kind of fiction in multiple genres, both YA and for adults.
About Rachel Caine
Rachel Caine’s rich, diverse bibliography of more than 50 books in print covers many categories and genres. She started out writing horror and fantasy as Roxanne Longstreet (Stormriders, The Undead, Red Angel, Cold Kiss, Slow Burn) before switching to the name Roxanne Conrad and publishing romantic suspense and mystery (Copper Moon, Bridge of Shadows, Exile). By 2003, she began to publish under her current pseudonym, specializing in urban fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal young adult fiction.
She has been writing original fiction since the age of fourteen, and professionally published since 1991. She graduated from Socorro High School in El Paso Texas (where she was a UIL all-state champion in music and journalism) and went on to earn an accounting degree from Texas Tech University. She played professionally as a musician for several years once out of college, but ultimately gave up the music for writing.
She’s had a varied “day job” career, including web design, graphic arts, accounting, payroll management, insurance investigation, and (most recently) corporate communications and crisis management. (It all counts as research.)
Rachel loves reading, writing, and mild amounts of arithmetic when required … but she has a special place in her heart for history, music, and science, and you’ll find those themes in many of her works.
Weekly Recap #39: Week of 2/4 – 2/10
/34 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
I feel like I say this almost every week but I’ll be so glad when spring gets here. The older I get the more I dislike winter and want nothing to do with it. It’s not even that we get all that much snow here — it’s that everyone overreacts as soon as the first flake falls. We’ve probably had less than 4 inches of snow total since Christmas, yet my son has only had 2 full weeks of school since then. Endless 2 hour delays and cancellations, which he loves of course. Me, not so much. LOL!
The only good thing about delays and cancellations is that I can squeeze in a few extra minutes of reading on those days, so I’ve had some pretty good reading weeks this winter. I still need to write the reviews for them, but I finished reading all of my February ARCs this week and even finished one of the 5 ARCs that I need to read and review prior to March 6th. I still don’t know that I’ll get to any of my backlisted books this month, but I’m feeling more optimistic about getting my Netgalley deadlines met anyway.
Aside from reading, I feel like I spent most of the week camped out in front of the TV, although I can’t remember much of anything that I actually watched the first half of the week. Work was busy this week so I think I basically just came home and zoned out, lol. I’ve been glued to coverage of the Olympics since Friday and expect that will continue for the next couple of weeks.
I think that’s it for me for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [4 Feb] Weekly Recap #38: Week of 1/28 – 2/3
- [5 Feb] When Light Left Us by Leah Thomas ★★★
- [6 Feb] Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Have Been On My TBR the Longest and I Still Haven’t Read
- [7 Feb] Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on IN SIGHT OF STARS by Gae Polisner
- [8 Feb] Winter by Marissa Meyer ★★★★★
- [8 Feb] Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab ★★★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Backlist Briefs – Mini Reviews for WINTER and OUR DARK DUET
/24 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2), Heartless
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #4
Published by Feiwel & Friends on November 10th 2015
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 827
Source: Library
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mark her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.
Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.
Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.
Review:
Winter is the fourth and final book in Melissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles. In Winter we not only continue the original story that Meyer has created in the midst of her fairytale retellings of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, but we also get a Snow White retelling added to the mix. As always, I’m most impressed with the way Meyer manages to seamlessly weave so many retellings into this series without losing any of the originality of the overall storyline.
As the lovely, quirky, and perhaps somewhat mentally unstable Snow White character, Winter is a welcome addition to this wonderful cast of characters that I’ve come to love so much. I was definitely more attached to the characters I’ve known longer, but I grew to love Winter too and wish I had had more time with her. What I especially liked about the introduction of Winter was that her presence really served to cast Levana even more firmly into the role of the evil (ummm, psychotic?) stepmother. Have I mentioned how much I loathe Levana?
Speaking of Levana, one of the coolest parts of this final book is that we finally make it to Levana’s home on the planet Luna. Meyer gives the reader a vivid look into the lives of the Lunar people and the ways they are forced to live because of Levana. I don’t want to give away anything else about the plot, so I’ll just say that I loved getting to see these amazing characters in action one more time working together to fight against the tyranny of Levana and free the Lunar people from her once and for all. (Even Iko is a total badass and it’s just so much awesomeness!) Because it’s so focused on the resistance and taking Levana down, Winter is truly action-packed from start to finish. That’s pretty much my favorite kind of read ever, so I loved every page of it. I’m so sad to have finally reached the end of this series, but I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ending. 5 STARS
Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
Also by this author: A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1), A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2)
Series: Monsters of Verity,
Published by Greenwillow Books on June 13th 2017
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 510
Also in this series: This Savage Song
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
THE WORLD IS BREAKING. AND SO ARE THEY.
KATE HARKER isn't afraid of monsters. She hunts them. And she's good at it.
AUGUST FLYNN once yearned to be human. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost.
THE WAR HAS BEGUN.
THE MONSTERS ARE WINNING.
Kate will have to return to Verity. August will have to let her back in. And a new monster is waiting—one that feeds on chaos and brings out its victims' inner demons.
Which will be harder to conquer: the monsters they face, or the monsters within?
Review:
Victoria Schwab really blew me away with Our Dark Duet, the final book in her Monsters of Verity duology. Not only was it filled with dark and creepy monsters and the action-packed goodness that I enjoyed so much in This Savage Song, the first book in the duology, but it also literally reduced me to tears by the end.
There’s so much to love about this book, but Kate Harker’s growth as a character is probably at the top of my list. She is now a spike wielding, monster-killing badass and I adored her even more in this book than I did in the first one. My love for poor tortured August is still strong in this book too, and I rooted for both he and Kate as they valiantly battled their demons, both literally and figuratively.
Schwab’s worldbuilding and pacing are spot on in Our Dark Duet too. I love this world she has created – it’s dark and creepy with monsters literally lurking around every corner, which just makes for such an intense and suspenseful reading experience. The pacing was incredible too as it mirrors what is going on with Kate and August. It starts off at a steady and even pace as Kate and August are each battling a lot of internal demons, but then once they come together to battle a monster that appears to be even worse than the Corsai and Malachi we met in This Savage Song, the pace increases to almost a frenetic pace. The second half of the book flies by and is filled with blood, explosions, destruction, and death. I devoured the nearly 500 page book in 24 hours.
Don’t even get me started on the ending, which just shattered my heart into a million pieces. Schwab has done it again — Our Dark Duet is truly a heartbreaking piece of writing perfection. 5 STARS
About Marissa Meyer
“One of my first spoken words was “story” (right along with “bath” and “cookie”), my favorite toy as an infant was a soft, squishable book, and I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first realized such a job existed.
When I was fourteen my best friend introduced me to anime and fanfiction—over the years I would complete over forty Sailor Moon fanfics under the penname Alicia Blade. Those so inclined can still find my first stories at fanfiction.net. Writing fanfic turned out to be awesome fun and brought me in contact with an amazing group of fanfiction readers and writers. As Alicia Blade, I also had a novelette, “The Phantom of Linkshire Manor,” published in the gothic romance anthology Bound in Skin (CatsCurious Press, 2007).
When I was sixteen I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma, Washington, affectionately termed “The Spag.” (Random factoid: This is also the restaurant where my parents met some 25 years before.) I attended Pacific Lutheran University where I sorted mail that came to the dorm, carted tables and chairs around campus, and took writing classes, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. Knowing I wanted a career in books, I would also go on to receive a Master’s degree in Publishing from Pace University (which you can learn more about here). After graduation, I worked as an editor in Seattle for a while before becoming a freelance typesetter and proofreader.
Then, day of days, someone thought it would be a good idea to give me a book deal, so I became a full-time writer. CINDER was my first completed novel, though I have an adorable collection of unfinished ones lying around, too.
I married my husband in 2011, two months before the release of Cinder, and we adopted our two beautiful twin daughters, Sloane and Delaney, in 2015. Reading lots and lots of bedtime stories is most definitely a new favorite pastime.”
Marissa Meyer in her own words, from www.marissameyer.com
About Victoria Schwab
Victoria “V.E.” Schwab is the NYT, USA, and Indie bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including Vicious, the Shades of Magic series, and This Savage Song. Her work has received critical acclaim, been featured by EW and The New York Times, been translated into more than a dozen languages, and been optioned for TV and Film. The Independent calls her the “natural successor to Diana Wynne Jones” and touts her “enviable, almost Gaimanesque ability to switch between styles, genres, and tones.”
She is represented by Holly Root at Root Literary and Jon Cassir at CAA.
All appearance and publicity inquiries should be directed to either her agent, or one of her publicists:
Harper: Gina.Rizzo@harpercollins.com
Tor: Alexis.Saarela@tor.com